USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 39
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 39
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 39
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As for the stones themselves and men who fashioned them, Har- riette Merrifield Forbes wrote a book which was printed in November, 1927, telling the story of "Gravestones of Early New England." She found some interesting memorials in Norfolk County churchyards as she wandered about. A few of the interesting facts which she learned are embodied in this chapter.
Many people presumed that the early gravestones were imported from England but it is doubtful if any considerable number of them crossed the ocean, as there was plenty of material at hand and men who were capable of doing the marking. In the Narragansett Basin, beds of shaly slate, showing shades of rose and green, are still to be quarried and some of that material may be found in the old burial grounds, in the tints named. Local stone cutters of Wrentham, Bel- lingham and other towns in that vicinity did their work well and it has lasted wonderfully.
According to the provisions of a will made in 1661, by William Blake, he gave "unto the Town of Dorchester twenty shillings to be bestowed for ye repairing of ye Burying Place so yt swine and other vermine may not anoy ye graves of ye saints." The burial ground has been well kept, enclosed with high walls. The records show that several votes were taken in various years for the care and preservation of the ground. In this burial ground are several gravestones cut by James Foster and his son James, two early stone cutters of Dorchester. On one of them appears the Foster coat-of-arms.
Forest Hills Cemetery has been termed by many the most beauti- ful cemetery in New England. It is believed to have been the first one of its kind established by any city or town in New England as the public burial place of its inhabitants. It was not established exclu- sively for the use of the inhabitants of Roxbury, as its proximity to Boston was taken into consideration. It was first opened in 1848 and since that time its territory has been extended to more than two hun- dred acres in West Roxbury district. It is so well kept that it seems more like a beautiful park than the resting place of the dead.
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The oldest marked grave in New England is that of Bernard Capen in the Old Dorchester Burying Ground at Upham's Corner. The "wolf stones," laid down to keep the wolves away, are still in place. Near it is the Stoughton sarcophagus, restored by Harvard College. The death of Bernard Capen occurred November 8, 1638. The Old Dorchester Burial Ground was the first public cemetery laid out by vote of any town in New England. It was opened in 1634.
CHAPTER LIII SLAVERY AND PUBLIC WELFARE
America Started With House Divided Against Itself-Massachusetts Returned First Slave in 1645-Commonwealth Was Free-born- Colored Man a Martyr at Boston Massacre and Assisted Commander Peary in Reaching the North Pole-Famous Adams Family of Quincy Anti-Slavery Workers-Slave Left to a Church-General Butler's "Tip" Led to Purchase of Overcoats-Early Welfare Work and Contributions From the Taverns-Working Indigent Persons on the Roads-Warnings Out of Town-How Mental Diseases Were Treated - Examinations to Prove "Inhabbitancy" - Massa- chusetts' Way of Distributing Comfort and Happiness.
About the same time that Rev. John Robinson gave his blessing to his congregation at Leyden, when they were about to embark, know- ing not whither they were going, John Rolfe made an entry in his diary, recording a curse. This was the entry:
"About the last of August came a Dutch man-of-warre that sold us twenty Negars."
Two hundred and forty years later Abraham Lincoln declared "A house divided against itself cannot stand." In that famous speech of June 16, 1858, he said: "I believe this government cannot endure per- manently half slave and half free." He took his cue from the same book which John Robinson had commended to the attention of the Pilgrims, telling them that out of this book should come further light and admonishing them to follow in the light of new revelations.
The House of Burgesses met at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. It was the first legislative assembly in America and the same year a Dutch "man-of-warre sold us twenty Negars."
A few months later a band of exiles set forth from Holland and were soon on their way on the "Mayflower." Before they left that historic vessel a form of government was drawn up and signed and Plymouth Rock, three months later, became the doorstep to freedom. America started with her house divided against itself.
Negroes were in America before the Pilgrims landed but not be- cause of their own free will, as they had none. They multiplied, the number was increased by later arrivals. In the Southern States, men, women and children were sold at the auction block, and the breeding of slaves for Southern markets was a recognized business in border
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States and even in the North. The institution, however, had its enemies from early times in the towns of the Pilgrims and Puritans.
The General Court of Massachusetts, in 1645, ordered the return to Africa of a Negro slave and the following year two others were sent back, showing that the fathers of the Commonwealth did not recog- nize any justice in that established branch of English commerce. The vote was as follows:
The General Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity to bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of manstealing, as also to prescribe such timely redress for what is past and such a law for the future as may suf- ficiently deter all others belonging to us to have to do in such vile and most odious courses, justly abhorred of all good and just men, do order that the negro interpreter, with others unlawfully taken, be at the first opportunity (at the charge of the country) sent to his native country at Guinea, and a letter with him of the indignation of the Court thereabouts and justice hereof, desiring our honored Governor would please put this order in execution.
"Cradle of Liberty" Given to Boston By a Slave Dealer-There were early Massachusetts men who protested against bringing slaves to Massachusetts, and among them were John Eliot, the "apostle to the Indians"; Gookin and Judge Sewall. The latter wrote a book entitled "The Selling of Joseph," which was a strong protest against the in- justices of slavery. But these men were ahead of the public senti- ment. Peter Faneuil who gave to the city of Boston the building which bears his name and has come down in history as "the Cradle of Liberty," was engaged in the slave trade, among many respectable Bostonians.
The Bill of Rights, adopted in the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780, had as its opening words: "All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and inalienable rights." The Provincial courts had held as early as 1769 that no person born in Massachusetts was a slave, even though he were a child of a slave. Relying upon the clause quoted from the Bill of Rights, three actions were brought in the Massachusetts courts, in behalf of those whose recovery of free- dom was sought.
Quork Walker had been beaten by Caldwell, who claimed to be his master and, asserting the rights of a master, defended his action in beating his property. The reply of the plaintiff was that he was a free man. The brief of Walker's counsel, Levi Lincoln of Hingham, presents an argument resting on the incompatibility of slavery with our condition as a people and the issue was plainly brought before the jury, which was urged "to give such a verdict now as will stand the test when we shall be arraigned at one common bar, shall have one' common Judge, be tried by one common jury, and condemned or ac-
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quitted by one common law-by the Gospel, the 'perfect law of lib- erty.' This cause will then be tried again, and your verdict will there be tried. Therefore, gentlemen of the jury, let me conjure you to give such a verdict now as will stand this test, and be approved by your own minds in the last moments of your existence, and by your Judge in the last day.
"It will then be tried by the laws of reason and revelation. Is it not a law of nature that men are equal? And is not a law of nature a law of God? Is there not a law of God, then, against slavery? If there is not a law of man establishing it, there is no difficulty. If there is, then the great difficulty is to determine which law you ought to obey. And if you shall have the same ideas as I have of present and future things, you will obey the former." The jury decided that Quork Walker was a free man, and in that decision slavery was abolished in Massachusetts.
This was a very disquieting decision to be placed before the men of Massachusetts, who were doing business as cotton manufacturers and were dependent upon the Southern cotton crop. Should there be a fall- ing out between Massachusetts and the Southern States, an important industry in Massachusetts would be crippled, and the feeling here- abouts was that the people of each State should follow a policy of non-interference. This sentiment prevailed until Southern leaders undertook to dictate concerning unsettled territories in the West. Mas- sachusetts men protested vigorously against the "Missouri Com- promise" in 1820. Daniel Webster led this protest, which is a point well to remember in view of his later attitude.
"Mayflower" Said to Have Been in Slave Trade-It has been set down in books of history that Captain Joanes of the "Mayflower" turned pirate not long after landing the Pilgrims. This may have been the case but, without affirming or denying the accusation against Captain Joanes, it seems well authenticated that the "Mayflower" was one of the first English ships to be used in the slave trade. It might be said of it in the same language of Hamlet : "To what base uses may we return.'
The same year that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, African slaves, shackled and driven, were on their way from the interior to the ports, their destination being free America and their fate a life of slavery. The Pilgrims and Puritans were slave owners-as many of them as could afford the purchase.
Not all slaves were from Africa. Some were red, not black. Col- onel Benjamin Church, "a worthy wearer of the dropped mantle of Myles Standish," argued with one hundred and fifty or more Indians
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in the town of Dartmouth to "come over to our side." With him, partners in the transaction, were Ralph Earl and Captain Eel. When the Dartmouth Indians cheerfully came over and surrendered their weapons, they were made prisoners and later sold into slavery.
The right of a Christian to sell a savage into slavery was the rul- ing idea until the Abolitionists challenged the right just before the Civil War. The widow and little son of King Philip were sold as slaves in the West Indies, after Rev. James Keith had saved their lives. In 1706, Rev. Cotton Mather made an entry in his diary :
"Received a singular blessing in the gift of a likely slave, which was a mighty smile of heaven on this family."
Colored Man in Notable Events-One of the martyrs of the Bos- ton Massacre was partly Negro and partly Indian. This was just previous to the Revolution. When the struggle for independence came, it was a Negro who brought about the first military victory by contriving the attack on Lord Percy's supply train and cut it off in Menotomy, now Arlington. At the Bunker Hill battle there were Negroes in the intrenchments and one of them fired the shot which killed Major Pitcairn. So all the way down through American his- tory the man of colored blood has had his part. We recall how, in the World War, the Germans who had never before seen a colored man, as was the case with many, when they confronted a colored regiment attributed the color to the frenzy of fighting enthusiasm, and said the Americans, as soon as they got to fighting turned black and fought like devils. This was a recent tribute to the fighting spirit which the colored troops had also shown in the Civil War.
When the assassin, Leon F. Czolgosz, shot President Mckinley, it was a Negro who struck down the murderer with his fist and pre- vented his possible escape. It was a Negro who was chosen by Com- mander Peary to go with him on his dash for the North Pole, ex- plaining afterwards that he chose him because he was of more use to him than all the others put together. He had built the sledges and knew every detail of the work to be accomplished if the pole was to be reached, and, with Commander Peary, he reached it.
When slavery was a "going business" in the South four million Negroes were held in slavery. According to the code of slave laws the black man had no rights at all which the white man was under any obligation to respect. Today, politically, the Negro has a vote but practically it is of little value to him, taking the whole country into consideration. According to the United States' census of 1920, there were about ten and a half million of Negroes in the country, over one third living in the cities.
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Massachusetts Was Free-born-The Constitution of Massachu- setts was adopted in 1780 and was adopted with its Bill of Rights, which contained the words "All men are created free and equal." These words are often misquoted as from the Declaration of Inde- pendence which was written by a slaveholder. It was inserted in the Bill of Rights of Commonwealth of Massachusetts and put an end to legal slavery in Massachusetts, so that when the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted it had no legal effect in this State. Other States became free by the adoption of that instrument, but Massachu- setts was free-born. This was proven by Levi Lincoln of Hingham who tried the cause of a man in Worcester held as a slave, and pro- cured a decision which broke the shackles of every bondman in Mas- sachusetts.
At the time of the Revolution, American feeling was averse to slavery. In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, one of the charges brought against the king was his support of the slave trade. The British Parliament had continued to give every possible encouragement to the importation of slaves, in defiance to American remonstrance. After the Revolution slavery dwindled in popularity in the North but, even half a century later, the Northern business men who profited by slavery in the South upheld it as an institution. Abolitionists' meetings were broken up and individuals treated with violence. In Boston a mob of well-dressed citizens, most respectable in social circles, forcibly suppressed a meeting of female abolitionists. Later William Lloyd Garrison, who started the first anti-slavery paper January 1, 1831, was mobbed on the street by other groups of people of education and social prominence who had a rope and a determined purpose. They participated in the gains of slavery. The horrible details were below the Mason and Dixon line. "Why worry?"
Adams Family Were Abolitionists - A matter-of-fact advertisement, typical of the times, appeared in the "Boston Post" in 1742, forty-one years before the General Court of Massachusetts abolished slavery in the commonwealth. It read :
"To be sold by the printer of this paper, the very best Negro Wom- an in this Town, who has had the Small-Pox and measles; is as hearty as a Horse, as brisk as a Bird, and will work like a Beaver. August 23d, 1742."
Surely here was a prize for someone, a woman who reflected the virtues of beasts and bird and was immune from some of the Boston diseases before the Revolution!
Slavery was lawful in Massachusetts from the landing of the Pil-
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grims till 1783, in other words one hundred and sixty-three years. John Quincy Adams, Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison of this vicinity did much to advance the freedom of the Negro.
John Quncy Adams, one of the famous Adams family of Norfolk County, made an eight-year fight against slavery and finally won his resolution which resulted in the prevention of slavery in the District of Columbia. This was a heavy blow against slavery struck by "Old Man Eloquent" from the home of the presidents.
Mrs. John Adams wrote to her husband, under date of September 24, 1774, concerning a conspiracy among the Negroes in Boston, and added :
There is but little said and what steps they will take in consequence of it I know not. I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in the province; it always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. You know my mind on this subject.
John Adams returned from Philadelphia in October, 1774. At the Braintree town meeting March 15, 1775, a covenant was passed "very unanimously," according to the records, and it is believed that the covenant was drafted by Adams. In it appeared the following clause :
We will neither import, or purchase any slave imported since the first day of December last, and will wholly discontinue the slave trade; and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manufacture to those who are concerned in it.
Jack Surely Belonged to the Church-The Brass Ball Tavern in Walpole was kept by Deacon Ezekiel Robbins, a prominent man of the town, whose property included a slave named Jack. Deacon Robbins bequeathed nearly all his property to the church, under con- ditions that Jack should be cared for in his old age and be given a decent burial at his decease. The clause in the will bearing on the condition read :
And further my will is, that if my Negro servant, named Jack, shall live to be chargeable by reason of old age or infirmity, or both, and my aforesaid wife shall not sell him, as she is hereby empowered to do, then my will is that the afore- said church in Walpole shall take tender care of him, and suitably provide for him all the remainder of his life, and afford a decent burial after his death.
The will was admitted to probate in 1772. The widow of Deacon Robbins died shortly afterward. The church records show that money was paid for the support of Jack, that he was advertised when he ran away and that a church committee inquired into the legality of his marriage to a colored woman with whom he lived. Jack died in 1810 and, since the records show that his funeral cost $163.33, it
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is evident that the church was faithful to its obligations and that Jack had a funeral which was all that he or Deacon Robbins could have asked.
From early records of Sharon it is learned that Rev. Phillip Curtis, who was pastor of the Congregational church in that town from 1742 to his death November 22, 1797, had a slave named Scipio. Jo- seph Everett of that town owned Cato, supposed to have been a Negro who served three years in the Continental Army and was pensioned by the town in his old age.
Benjamin Randall, another leading citizen of Sharon, had a slave named Boston who outlived his master and was cared for by a fund left by Randall for that purpose. Boston was a faithful attendant at the religious services and one of the last slaves in the country. Two other Sharon slaves, of which records have been left, were: Caesar, owned by Samuel Cumings; and Cuffe, owned by Edmund Quincy, Jr., manufacturer of cannon used in the fortification of Dorchester Heights, and other cannon and guns used by the Colonial Army dur- ing the Revolution.
While the Civil War did not have the liberation of the colored peo- ple as its determining purpose, most people, both North and South, knew that Abraham Lincoln had said that if he ever got a chance to hit the institution of slavery he would hit it hard. The boys of '61 marched against the institution of slavery, without knowing how freedom for the blacks was going to be brought about, or whether it was going to be brought about. Nevertheless slavery was at the bottom of the differences in opinion between the industrialists north of Mason and Dixon line and the planters below it. The hatred for abolitionists in this vicinity had given way to admission that they were in the right. It had not. come suddenly but by degrees, and the righteous conviction had become fixed.
Purchase of "Andrew's Overcoats"-Benjamin F. Butler of Lowell, a Boston lawyer, who was destined to become a general in the Civil War and many years later governor of Massachusetts, was a Dem- ocrat and, as a member of that party, attended the political convention at Charleston, in which Jefferson Davis was nominated as the Dem- ocratic candidate for presidency of the United States. "Ben" But- ler returned from the national convention of his party and called upon John A. Andrew of Hingham, who was governor of Massachu- setts, chosen by the Free-Soil party.
Concerning this visit to Governor Andrew, Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale wrote in his "Story of Massachusetts," published in Boston in 1891:
Plym -- 65
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"General Butler called upon the governor to say to him that he was sure, from what he had seen and heard in Charleston, that it was the intention of the Southern leaders to bring the matter to the ar- bitrament of war. He thought that the Northern States should not be unprovided for such an emergency. Acting upon his advice, Gov- ernor Andrew sent a message to the Legislature, asking that it might be considered in secrecy. And it was so considered, in a secrecy which was curiously well maintained.
"One is reminded of the old days when the town of Paxton defied George III, and bought powder for war against England, when one remembers that the result of this secret conference was an appropria- tion of $20,000, to be placed in the hands of the governor, that he might prepare the militia of the State for immediate movement. With that $20,000 Governor Andrew purchased such matters as were sup- posed most necessary. Among other things, he purchased what were for a long time known as 'Andrew's overcoats' - a few thousand coats, such as were used by the infantry of the United States Army. The preparations were made none too soon. On the ninth day of April, 1861, Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was fired upon) by the troops of the State of Carolina. President Lincoln summoned to ninety days' service, 50,000 militia from the Northern States.
"Governor Andrew instantly issued his proclamation ordering into service the fifth, sixth, and seventh regiments of the Massachusetts Militia. The ranks of these regiments were at once filled by eager volunteers. Men who were determined to go, paid people who had the privilege of belonging to these regiments, for the right to take their places as substitutes. On the eighteenth of April, the Sixth Regi- ment, in answer to Governor Andrew's proclamation, was mustered into service on Boston Common, in twenty-four hours after the proc- lamation was issued. As it passed through Baltimore, on the nine- teenth of April, the historical day in the fortunes of Massachusetts, it was attacked by the mob of Baltimore, and two of its numbers were killed.
Massachusetts shed her choicest blood To wash the streets of Baltimore."
Rev. Dr. Edward Hale tells an anecdote worth preserving of the arrival of the Sixth Regiment in Washington. Even leading men in Washington were in doubt what might be the immediate issue of the President's proclamation. As it happened on the afternoon of the nineteenth, Mr. Lincoln was surrounded by a few personal and polit- ical friends in the White House. Among them was Charles Sum- ner, who had, in the previous month, been pressing with quite as
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much pertinacity as Mr. Lincoln liked, the name of one and another citizen of Massachusetts for appointment in the diplomatic service abroad. Mr. Lincoln had said to him at their last interview, "Now, Mr. Sumner, I hope I shall not have to hear from Massachusetts again." Mr. Sumner was fond of saying afterwards, that when the Sixth Massa- chusetts, clad in Governor Andrew's overcoat's, marched up Penn- sylvania Avenue, "company front," he said to Mr. Lincoln who watched them as they passed the White House, "Mr. President, you are glad to hear from Massachusetts today."
Liberated Slaves and Other Indigent Persons-As has already been stated, Massachusetts early gave up her slaves and many of them be- came an economic liability upon the towns in which they had re- mained with their masters after liberation. Being no longer prop- erty to be handed down or sold as assets of the estate, they were help- less, unless the town took a hand in providing for them. They, there- fore, became slaves of the town instead of individual masters, in some instances. Providing for these liberated slaves was a part of the process of providing for indigent persons, regardless of "color or previous condition of servitude."
There was another cause for poverty in the early days and that was too close attention to the temptations of convivial parties as a habit.
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